Why you should install a heat pump and solar collectors TODAY? There are many reasons why you might want a heat pump and solar collectors, here are three of the most important:

1) You want to save a significant amount of money on the cost of heating your home and receive a minimum of £1000 a year for next 20 years when RHI kick-in early in 2011:

Ground source heat pumps (GSHP’s) collect stored solar energy from your garden, the heat pump uses this “free” energy to heat your home and provide hot water. There is a cost to collecting the energy and that is the electricity to run the circulating pumps, compressor and control systems of the heat pump. Our GSHP’s are 400% efficient which means that from each 1kW of energy used it gives 4kW back! Solar collectors require almost no power at all (equivalent of small light bulb).

In addition, the Renewable Heat Incentive is intended to be launched in April 2011. This government scheme is designed to offset the costs of installing renewable technologies. Here is a real life example:

A large household’s useful energy demand for heat averages 20,000 kWh per year. You might conclude that solar thermal collectors would provide 5,600 kWh hot water requirement, with the ground source heat pump providing the rest (1,400 kWh) as well as the space heating requirement (13,000 kWh). In this case the RHI entitlement would be:

5,600 kWh x 18p = about £1,000 per year for 20 years

14,400 kWh x 7p = £1,000 per year for 23 years


Total RHI payments would be over £2,000 per year for the first 20 years (and around £1000 per year for the following 3 years). This amount would be paid as a fixed (deemed) annual amount regardless of actual energy use (subject to the terms set out by the RHI such as continuing to use the equipment).

All installations after 15th July 2009 will be seen as a “new installation” and will be eligible for the RHI.

2) You want your home to be continually warm and cosy:

The philosophy of how a heat pump works means that it warms up the fabric of the building and then merely tops-up the “steady state heat loss”. By knowing when the outside air temperature is dropping it can calculate the amount of heat the building will shortly require and start supplying the heat prior to a drop in temperatures inside the building. This means that your home will be constantly warm, comfortable and cosy. Solar thermal collectors will mainly provide domestic hot water, but in some cases can be linked via buffer tank to support space heating. More information can be found on our main website at www.futureproofenergy.co.uk

3) You prefer independence from fossil fuel and feel that future proofing your house will be a good and long-lasting idea:

The most recent data show that approximately 69% of heat is produced from gas. Oil and electricity account for 11% and 14% respectively, solid fuel 3% and renewables just 1%. Gas and oil prices are rising steeply and are likely to continue to do so: demand is rising but supply is not, gas and oil reserves are likely to start ‘running dry’ over the next twenty years. The situation is likely to get worse not better.

Global energy demand is forecast to increase by around 40% between 2010 and 2030, with more than three quarters of the rise from fossil fuels. Without implementing renewable technologies on larger scale UK households would be more reliant on imported fossil fuels, and further exposed to global energy price fluctuations, especially when demand recovers as the world emerges from the economic downturn.

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